RECYCLING:  The BIG Picture

(Note:  The statistics noted on this page are drawn from multiple sources, including Recycle America (www.recycleamerica.com).  SERC assumes no responsibility for content accuracy or currency.)

• Each year, an estimated 500 billion to 1 trillion plastic bags are consumed worldwide. That comes out to over one million per minute!

• Over 380,000,000,000 (380 billion) plastic bags, sacks and wraps are consumed in the U.S. each year. Plastic shopping bags only...100 billion.

• Only 1-3% of plastic bags currently end up getting recycled.

• Plastic bags don’t biodegrade, they photodegrade—breaking down into increasingly smaller bits.  Those bits contaminate soil and waterways and enter the food chain when animals accidentally eat them.  Hundreds of thousands of sea turtles, whales and other marine mammals die every year from eating discarded plastic bags mistaken for food. 

• Plastic bags are among the 12 types of debris most commonly found during coastal cleanups.

• The U.S. also uses 10 billion paper grocery bags/year--the equivalent of 14 million trees.

We're Talkin' Some Major Trash!

In a lifetime...the average American will throw away 600 times his/her adult weight in garbage. That’s 90,000 pounds of leftover trash for our children to clean up!

Every year...Americans throw away enough office paper annually to build a wall 12 ft. high, stretching from Los Angeles to New York City.

Every three months...Americans throw away enough aluminum to rebuild our entire commercial air fleet.

       One-Ton Wonders...

Recycling just one ton of PAPER saves...

Trees: 17

Water:  6,953 gallons

Oil:  463 gallons

Air pollution:  587 pounds

Landfill space:  3.06 cubic yards

Energy:  4,077 Kilowatt-hour

 Recycling just one ton of GLASS saves...

Sand:  1330 pounds

Soda ash:  433 pounds

Limestone:  433 pounds

Feldspar:  151 pounds

 

Recycling just one ton of ALUMINUM saves...

Enough electricity to power the average home for almost two years!

·        It takes 70% less energy to produce one ton of paper from recycled paper than producing the same amount from trees.

One Year Later...

·        If 10,000 people switched from 0% recycled office paper to 100% Post-Consumer recycled office paper for one year, the collective “green” impact is equivalent to taking 230 cars off the road for 12 months!

The Good, The Bad, and the Reality

·        * A PETty Difference?  Hardly!

The GOOD news:  Plastic bottles made from PET (#1, also known as PETE) can be recycled into:

beverage bottles

plastic strapping

fleece jackets

sleeping bags

carpets

 

The BAD news:  In 2002, less than one-fifth of all plastic beverage bottles in the U.S. were recycled.

·        * GLASSy-eyed?

The GOOD news:  Glass recycling...

yields a 10% energy savings

preserves the life of the glass furnace.

The BAD news:  Currently, less than one-thirds of glass bottles sold in the U.S., are recycled.

·       

* CAN I Keep My Laptop?

Recycling just one aluminum can saves enough electricity to run a laptop computer for four hours.

A SOUTH EUCLID RECYCLING EXAMPLE

Think about this.

In the year 2000*, South Euclid’s population was 23,537.  (*For now, assume our population remains the same at this time)

Okay, we know that babies can’t recycle...but if EVERY South Euclid Resident DID recycle one aluminum soft drink can a WEEK (weight:  approx. 1 oz.)

By the end of the year…

We would keep about 76,495 lbs. stuff out of our landfills!

That’s over 38 TONS!

If we also recycled just one half-liter plastic sports drink or water bottle once a week…

We’d recycle about 152,990.5 lbs., or over 76 TONS, of would-be trash!

And, if we each also added just one newspaper section (about 20 pgs.) to our recycling…